Trump says the war with Iran will end “soon” in a prime-time speech, but promises “very tough” strikes in the coming weeks.
Washington – President Trump predicted in his speech on Wednesday that the US will end its military operation in Iran “soon,” and said that the US military had achieved a “great victory,” but did not give a clear timeline as questions swirled about when and how. war he can finish.
The president, in his nearly 19-minute speech from the White House, said the US would hit Iran “hard” in the next two to three weeks. He threatens again to destroy all of Iran’s power plants and target its oil fields if the country’s leaders do not make a deal.
“I made it clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our goals are fully achieved,” said the president. “Because of the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we’re on the way to eliminating every American military objective very, very soon. We’re going to hit them hard in the next two to three weeks. We’re going to put them back in the stone age, where they belong.”
The president spoke to the nation as the mid-term election battle is over a month away. Voting shows most Americans are skeptical about the war and warned of the rising fuel prices it helped cause.
He said on Tuesday that he expected the war to last another two or three weeks before the operation ends, unless Iran reaches a deal – a deadline he did not stick to in Wednesday’s speech.
Mr. Trump reminded America that past wars – World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War – took years, while he expected that this process would end soon. “We have been in this military operation, very powerful, intelligent, against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days, and the country has been removed,” he said.
“Currently,” he continued, “negotiations are still ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change. But the regime change happened because of the death of all its first leaders. They are all dead. The new party is not strong and very logical.”
But if “no deal is made, our eyes are on key targets,” he said, warning that the US “could hit each of its power plants very hard and maybe simultaneously.” The president also threatened to attack the Iranian oil industry.
Trump: Iran lost “badly”
Mr. Trump blamed the war on being successful in eliminating the Iranian military.
“Over the past four weeks, our troops have achieved quick, decisive, and dramatic victories on the battlefield,” the president said. “A victory like few have seen before.”
The President praised the destruction of Iran’s military and the country’s “significantly reduced” ability to launch missiles and drones. He said the “critical strategic objectives” of the war are “moving toward the edge,” which is sort of what the White House has been saying in recent days.
“In the history of wars, there has never been an enemy that has lost so many things in a few weeks,” he continued. “Our enemies are being defeated and America, as it has been five years under my leadership, is winning, and now it is winning more than ever.”
The president took a moment to recognize the 13 members of the U.S. “who have put their lives on the line in this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran.”
“We salute them now and we must honor them by completing the work they sacrificed their lives for,” he said.
The president reiterated an argument he made earlier: That without this intervention in Iran, “the most violent and violent regime in the world would be free to carry out its campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest and mass murder behind a nuclear shield.”
Mr. Trump also said there wouldn’t be a “Middle East with Israel right now” if he hadn’t cut the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration, and said Iran was “on the brink” of developing a nuclear weapon.
The US intelligence community assessed last year that Iran did not have an active nuclear weapons program, and was months away from developing a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so.
He said Iranian officials are “rapidly building a large number of ballistic missiles and will soon have missiles that can reach the US mainland, Europe and anywhere else in the world.”
Trump says Iran is responsible for high fuel prices – and other countries must “hold” the Strait of Hormuz
The president blamed the increase in the price of American gas on the Iranian regime.
“Many Americans were worried about seeing the recent increase in gasoline prices here at home,” he said. “This short-term escalation is the result of the Iranian regime launching terrorist attacks on commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict. This is further evidence that Iran cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.”
The president also said that countries that rely heavily on the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil route that Iran has effectively blocked, “must take care of that role” and “grab and value it.”
He suggested that countries that cannot buy enough fuel for themselves should buy it from the US
“We have a lot, we have a lot,” he said.
He also urged those countries to “go to the road and just take it and protect it.”
When the conflict is over, “the difficulty will naturally open,” said Mr. Trump, repeating a version of the line he had said earlier.
Trump is speaking to America at a crucial time in the Iran war
The speech of Mr. Trump on Wednesday was the first speech the president has given since the start of the war on February 28, although he often talks to reporters about the project.
This happened after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “the coming days will be decisive” in the war with Iran.
Mr. Trump has indicated that he is looking to end the war in the near future, and has expressed hope for indirect talks between the US and Iran that have taken place in recent days.
Nevertheless, hundreds of US Special Operations Forces and thousands of Marines and Army paratroopers are now in the Middle East, giving Mr. Trump more options for war on Iran if he chooses to expand the war, sources. he told CBS News earlier this week. If necessary, those forces could take part in operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, target Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal or seize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
Even if Mr. Trump, insisting that the main goal is to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, told Reuters that he is not interested in Iran’s most enriched uranium stored in underground tunnels. If something is enriched, the the material can be used to get nuclear weapons, but it may need to hold such things dangerous US occupation. The American intelligence community assessed last year that Iran was not actively trying to build a nuclear bomb.
“That’s underground, I don’t care about that,” the president said of Iran’s enriched uranium, most of which is believed to be buried under debris from last summer’s US strikes. “We will always be watching it via satellite.”
Mr. Trump praised America’s friends in the Middle East in Wednesday’s speech, including Israel and many Arab states. He did not attack NATO, after expressing frustration in recent days about the alliance over what he saw as its failure to help the US open the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s oil. Iran’s successful closure of the strait disrupted oil supplies and sent prices skyrocketing.
The president said this week that he is thinking “completely” withdrawal The US from the treaty organization created after World War II, in response to the decision of the allies not to help the US in this crisis.
At the beginning of the war, Mr. Trump had suggested he might attack Iran and target the country’s energy infrastructure without allowing ships to freely navigate the Strait of Hormuz. Recently, however, he stated that other countries should be responsible for reopening this road since the US is not dependent on oil from the region.
He told CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang on Tuesday that he is not ready “just yet” to give up his efforts to force Iran to open the road to all shipping traffic. But he said other countries that rely on Middle Eastern oil “should come in and take care of it.”
“Iran has been reduced, but they will have to come in and do their own work,” he said.
Meanwhile, the war abroad affects prices at home at a time when Americans look at the economy like struggling with the fear that war will make that worse. Average price of a gallon of gas in the US exceeded $4 this week for the first time in almost four years. The price of diesel has also increased, and good prices for consumers are likely to increase with it.
A CBS News poll from last month shows that most Americans are not sold on the Iran war, with 60% disapproving of the US taking military action in Iran and 67% saying they are not willing to pay for more gas during the conflict, even though most Republicans support the war.
Asked about the increase in fuel prices, Mr. Trump said on Tuesday: “All I have to do is leave Iran, and we’re going to do that very soon, and they’re going to go down.”
